Speakers

Jakub Wygnański

CEO of The Unit for Social Innovation and Research “Shipyard”, Poland

Sociologist, activist and co-founder of non-governmental organizations. In the early 90s he resigned from active politics, becoming one of the animators of the movement of non-governmental organizations in Poland.

Krzysztof Izdebski

Policy Director of Fundament, Poland

For years, lawyer providing legal consultations on access to public information and re-use of public sector information, drafting legal opinions and representing NGO’s and other clients in court proceedings. He is also a researcher in the field of combatting and preventing corruption. Recently he published: Transparency and Open Data Principles : Why They Are Important and How They Increase Public Participation and Tackle Corruption.

Krzysztof Madejski

ePaństwo Foundation, Poland

Coordinates Code for Poland, networks, overlooks PublicData.gov.pl. Since 2011 he is involved in an NGO successfully lobbing for regulation of advertisements in public spaces.

Lejla Sadiku

United Nations Development Programme

Lejla works in UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub on open data in Europe and Central Asia. She has worked on use and re-use of open data to increase transparency and improve public services, leading initiatives which aim to bring citizens, including youth, closer to their decision-makers through the use of technology, and engaging young people as agents of change through collaborative design methods.

Anna Kuliberda

TransparenCEE

Anna manages the international TransparenCEE project. Before that she was built community for the NetSquared and Community Boost_r programs. She also supported our Things project in Turkey. Anka used to organize Warsaw NetWtorek meet-ups, she was also involved in socila hackathons SocHack.
Anna graduated from Political Sciences at the Wroclaw University. She has extensive experience working in the civil society sector. She worked at Watchdog Polska (Sieć Obywatelska), Sempre Avant and U.G. Zastone (in Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Anna is a total #OpenData geek. She lives in Sarajevo, B&H.

Anna Sienicka

Vice President, Techoup Europe, Polska

Anna is responsible for the strategic direction of TechSoup in Europe. Prior to that Anna worked in the the Foundation for Social and Economic Initiatives. She has also held a position of the head of the legal group of the Council for Public Benefit Work and was a member on the Polish Prime Minister’s Social Economy Task Force.

Iurii Nazarov

Advisor to the Mayor of Kyiv

Advisor to the Mayor of Kyiv, co-ordinator of the Kyiv Smart City initiative, Head of the Information and Communication Technologies and Information Security Department at Apparatus of executive body of Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration)

Previously, Maria worked in India with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) where she created the India Privacy Monitor project, carried out legal and investigatory research on India’s surveillance industry and co-organized multiple round-table meetings across India for the discussion of draft privacy legislation. Before that, she volunteered with Privacy International, interned with the Parliament of Greece and acquired a MSc in Security Studies from the University College London (UCL).

Frank Kresin

Research Director at Waag Society, Institute for Arts, Science and Technology in Amsterdam

Frank Kresin is Research Director at Waag Society, Institute for Arts, Science and Technology in Amsterdam. His background is in Artificial Intelligence and film making, and his main interest is in researching, developing and assessing technology for societal goals. Frank has shaped several international innovation programmes, like Apps for Europe, City SDK, Digital Social Innovation, Hack the Brain and Making Sense. Furthermore, he is board member at the Dutch Internet Society and The Mobile City, and an advisor to the Fund for the Creative Industries.

Tetyana Bohdanova

Civil society development specialist

A native of Lviv, Ukraine, Tetyana is a civil society development specialist with a passion for using innovative technology for democratic change. She has spent the last ten years working in former Soviet Union and beyond to promote legislative reforms, advocate for local issues and defend free and fair elections.

Since 2010, Tetyana has written extensively about social media developments and digital activism in Ukraine, covering Euromaidan and its aftermath for Global Voices and publishing research on social media and organizing.

Tetyana holds a Master’s Degree from the Free University of Berlin, where she researched impact of technology on social movements.

Eleanor Stewart

Head of Transparency for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Having worked in communications for much of her career, Eleanor has extensive experience of both internal and external communications and Transparency and Open Data. Currently Head of Transparency for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office she is responsible for driving the necessary institutional change within the department and the release of its information and supporting the UK Governments international programmes and objectives in Transparency and Open Data through the Open Government Partnership and other initiatives as well as working to embed digital methodologies and processes in the day to day work of a foreign affairs ministry.

Some of her achievements in introducing new technologies and policies into government include:

Ensuring that digital media are included in the production, reporting and evaluation of Government policy and initiatives

Launching data.gov.uk working with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Andrew Stott to facilitate the release and reuse of government data

Pioneering the use of hack days or collaborative events to inform/develop foreign policy

Defining security and propriety rules for civil servants working with and using social media

Developing and promoting the use of web 2.0 and social media technology within the secure network of the civil service to improve knowledge sharing and efficiency

Yurii Lisovskyi

Civil Network OPORA

Each elections he coordinates work of 200 long-term and at least 1500 Election Day observers.

Also he is responsible for data gathering, cleaning and analysis in OPORA projects about Parliament monitoring and works in ICT security.

Works upon tools which help activists to monitor Parliament and observe election.

Olha Aivazovska

Civil Network OPORA, Ukraine

Olga Aivazovska is coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA NGO, international expert in electoral matters, parliamentarism and development of draft laws. Ms. Aivazovska was a team-lider of national nonpartisan observation missions in Ukraine with over 20,000 activists involved from 2010 to 2016, and participated in electoral observation in more than 10 countries of Europe. Olga represents Ukraine in political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine-Russia-OSCE) settling the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, is a Member of the National Unity Council under the President of Ukraine, and Board Member of the Ukrainian Think Tanks Liaison Office in Brussels. Was included in top 100 most influential and most successful women of Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 (according to political editions the Focus magazine and the Novoe Vremia).

Oleh Levchenko

Civil Network OPORA, Ukraine

Katya Gorchinska

Hromadske.UA, Ukraine

Ukrainian journalist, executive director of the Hromadske.UA of 2016. Was deputy chief editor of KyivPost (2008-2015) and editor in chief of investigations of the Ukrainian branch of Radio Liberty (2015-2016).

Andrii Bashtovyi

Hromadske.UA, Ukraine

Alina L. Romanowski

Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia and Central Asia,

U.S. Department of State

Alina L. Romanowski assumed her position as the Coordinator for U.S. Assistance on March 9, 2015. Working in the State Department’s Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, and coordinating closely with the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs and the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance, Ms. Romanowski oversees all U.S. Government assistance to 30 countries in Europe and Eurasia, with primary focus on the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia. She coordinates the programs of multiple U.S. government agencies and State Department bureaus involved in U.S. economic, democratic, security, and humanitarian assistance in the region, and designs and implements assistance strategies that support U.S. foreign policy priorities. She also plays the lead role in allocating foreign assistance budgets appropriated by Congress, and works closely with foreign governments, multilateral institutions, and NGOs to ensure that U.S. foreign aid is used efficiently and effectively.

Alexey Sidorenko

Director, Teplitsa of Social Technologies

Dr. Alexey Sidorenko is an expert on the Russian internet and an experienced web developer. His knowledge of Russian new media and politics encompasses web development, data analysis, regional political analysis, freedom of online speech issues, reporting, and editing.

Starting February 2012, Dr. Sidorenko is the head of the Moscow-based project “Teplitsa of Social Technologies” (te-st.ru), an innovation incubator dedicated to creating citizen web applications and enhancing NGO ICT skills.

From 2009-2012, Dr. Sidorenko was a reporter and an editor of the “RuNet Echo” project at Global Voices Online, where he researched and analyzed developments in the Russian internet sphere. This included the role of the internet in civil society and politics, the changing media landscape, the role of the internet in breaking news coverage, internet policy in Russia and its effect on the digital divide and freedom of speech, and information security and cyber warfare.

He has also contributed reporting for Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders on internet and freedom of speech issues in Russia. In 2010, he served as the web developer behind the “Help Map” project, an award-winning crowdsourcing initiative to help the victims of the summer wildfires.

He is a native speaker of Russian and is also fluent in English and Polish.

Blerta Cela

UNDP Ukraine, Deputy Country Director Programme

A native of Albania, Blerta brings over 15 years of experience in programme management, design and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation, and resource mobilization.

Throughout her career, she has managed a series of multi-partner programmes and policy development initiatives in the areas of access to justice, unpaid care economy, development effectiveness, community empowerment and financial inclusion.

For the last three years, Blerta served as Head of Partnerships, Results and Resource Management with UNDP Bangladesh.

Prior to Bangladesh, Blerta worked with the Bureau for Development Policy in New York, supporting the HIV/AIDS group and the Gender Team.

Prior to UNDP, Blerta worked with several civil society and human rights organizations on socioeconomic development and human rights programmes across all regions.

Blerta also worked in Kosovo, including in the refugee camps, to promote the rule of law and access to justice.

Tin Geber

Project Manager, Design and Technology Lead, the engine room

Tin has a background in communication studies, web development, and interface design, and he works to simplify the relationship between technology, data, and human beings. He started work in the development sector in 2010 with the International Land Coalition, helping shape global online land rights accountability projects like the Land Matrix. He also developed online and offline training for land rights groups in South America, Africa and Asia, supporting them to build data-driven campaigns. In his spare time, he develops digital security training programs for high schools, and helps Italian NGOs working with asylum seekers to integrate technology into their work.